Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 22, 1990 TAG: 9006220466
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS LENGTH: Long
No one in this gaming capital is offering odds on the outcome of a case that has more wrinkles than the furrowed brow of the man who coached the Nevada-Las Vegas Runnin' Rebels to college basketball's national championship two months ago.
The options for the committee range from demanding (again) that Tarkanian be suspended (knowing UNLV cannot do so under court order) to giving the school and the coach a slap on the wrist.
The outcome - expected in about three weeks - is likely to be somewhere in between.
The case began in 1977 when UNLV was cited for three dozen recruiting violations. The NCAA ordered UNLV to serve two years' probation and, in an unprecedented action, ordered Tarkanian suspended for two years.
The NCAA had never ordered a coach suspended before Tarkanian or since, said NCAA spokesman Jim Marchiony.
The university served the probation, but Tarkanian went to state District Court and obtained an injunction that remains in effect and prevents the university from suspending him.
Tarkanian went on to build the best record among active college coaches, 449-102 in 17 years at UNLV, topped off by a 103-73 rout of Duke in the NCAA championship game April 2.
The NCAA pursued the celebrated case to the U.S. Supreme Court where a 5-4 decision in December 1988 went against Tarkanian and left colleges and universities in a quandary.
The high court ruled the NCAA was a private organization and did not have to provide Tarkanian due process when it suspended him. However, the panel said UNLV, which would have to impose the suspension, must first provide Tarkanian due process.
The NCAA cannot suspend a coach; it can only order a member school to do so.
So what are the Infractions Committee's options?
Ordering Tarkanian suspended again would fly in the face of the state court order, and it would mean ordering UNLV to impose a penalty it legally cannot carry out.
If the committee were to consider further probation for UNLV, it would mean penalizing the school twice for the same offense and imposing sanctions on current players who were pre-schoolers when the violations occurred.
The Infractions Committee, meeting in 1979 after the probation was served, said UNLV did all it was asked to do.
"This case is now 13 years old. The university has only been on probation one time in its history," UNLV president Robert Maxson said Wednesday. "It did everything it was asked to do in the probation period. It did it honorably. I just can't recommend any more penalties against the university.
"Suspending Jerry is not an option. He has a permanent injunction against the university."
Maxson said the long battle is a "cloud that has hung over the university far too long."
UNLV also is the subject of an NCAA investigation over the recruiting of New York City prep star Lloyd Daniels, who became involved in drugs and was dropped by Tarkanian three years ago. Results of that investigation should be known later this year.
Tarkanian, Maxson and athletic director Brad Rothermel are scheduled to appear before the committee Saturday in Kansas City.
It has been suggested that any further NCAA penalties could include actions such as limiting Tarkanian from recruiting out of state for a period of time or cutting some television appearances.
"If they're fair with us, we'll be OK," Tarkanian said of the hearing.
Tarkanian is reluctant to talk about the NCAA - a big change from the mid-1970s when he criticized the agency in newspaper columns he wrote while coaching at Long Beach State.
The Long Beach program was penalized by the NCAA in 1974, the same year Tarkanian moved to Las Vegas.
The NCAA placed UNLV on probation in August 1977, four months after the school made its first appearance in the Final Four. The NCAA alleged violations such as free airplane rides and grade altering. Tarkanian denied the charges and went to state court to prevent his suspension.
State District Court judges sided with Tarkanian throughout a series of trials, with one judge calling the battle with the NCAA "a trial by ambush."
NCAA investigator David Berst was accused by one judge of having "an obsession to the point of paranoia" to harm Tarkanian.
Berst, now NCAA assistant executive director for enforcement, denies any vendetta against Tarkanian.
"I have responded numerous times to allegations by Tarkanian's attorneys that I have a vendetta against him," Berst said in a telephone interview this week. "It simply isn't true. I was attempting to do my job. My relation with Jerry over the years has been relatively friendly."
The Tarkanian battle, however, has brought some changes in the way the NCAA conducts its investigations.
Anyone interviewed now can review the information collected by the agency; they weren't always allowed to do so before 1976, Berst said.
"It's now a requirement that they review their own testimony," Berst said.
Tarkanian's attorneys argued in state court that NCAA investigators relied on their memories and that carried more weight than sworn depositions from parties who refuted NCAA findings.
Earlier this year, the NCAA and Tarkanian's attorneys worked out a stipulation that the coach would pay his own attorney's fees, estimated at $320,000, plus $21,000 in court costs.
The NCAA previously had been ordered to pay.
by CNB